The numbers for Blaine County are unclear, but what is clear is that businesses and employees that can locate anywhere often choose resort areas like Blaine County as the places to hang their hats. It's a phenomenon that, should it be marketed and expanded, could contribute more substantively to the area's economy.
"So much of it's under the radar," said Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau Executive Director Carol Waller. "I know someone who works remotely for IBM. I know someone else who works remotely for Palm Pilot. It's going to be pretty interesting to try to flesh that out."
It's not, however, only about people who live here and work for companies elsewhere. It's about companies that could be anywhere and choose to be here. Ten years ago a Seattle oncologist by the name of Charles Weaver chose to move to Ketchum to found his dot-com business, Cancer Consultants.
"The key issues, frankly, are quality of life, cost of living and schools," said Weaver, the company's founder and CEO. "It's not being in traffic. It's the little things—being with your family, being in the mountains, having the time to do what you want to do."
Cancer Consultants, which is essentially a WebMD for cancer, develops Web sites for cancer centers and produces technical science writing on all aspects of cancer care, from research to treatment. Cancer Consultants employs about 35 people, but that number has been as high as 50 and as low as 22.
"I've always been disappointed that the city of Ketchum hasn't done more to promote attracting businesses like ours," Weaver said. "If a town like Ketchum gets several businesses like mine, all of a sudden you've got a vibrant town where people make decent money, live here and work here."
A 2006 study in Routt County, Colo., which includes the city of Steamboat and its ski resort, attempted to quantify the issue. The study, coordinated by the Routt County Economic Development Cooperative, examined businesses and employees separately.
"Location-neutral businesses and location-neutral employees in Routt County are creating an industry that is rapidly joining traditional mining, agricultural and recreational economies in importance," the study states. "A 2005 survey of location-neutral businesses (where the owner resides here) and location-neutral employees (who live here but work for employers outside the county), conducted by a consortium of civic, economic and social organizations serving Routt County, Colo., suggests that there may be as many as 700 households (10 percent of all households in Routt County) either wholly or in part engaged in 'remote working.'"
In Routt County the phenomenon is estimated to contribute $35 million annually to the local economy and generate $600,000 in sales tax revenue.
The study indicated that so-called location-neutral entrepreneurs are attracted by a sense of community, and their presence is made possible by broadband Internet access and air service.
Jima Rice is president of Jigsaw, a not-for-profit-pending organization based in the Wood River Valley. Jigsaw supports strength and development of business in the valley and provides education, networking and other resources for the valley's current and aspiring entrepreneurs.
Rice said there's something to learn from the Routt County study.
"First of all, we don't advertise ourselves as an interesting community in which to do business," she said. "We, first, need to think about ourselves that way and, second, need to advertise ourselves that way."
Rice said the Wood River Valley has the infrastructure as well as the highly skilled workforce needed to promote the area as an appealing destination for location-neutral businesses and employees.
"We could attract employee-light and clean, small industries here," Rice said. "These are the ones that pay the higher salaries that one needs to have to be able to live in this valley. Service employees, even with affordable housing—it's going to be very difficult for them to live here."
The Routt County study points out that remote working is an increasingly acceptable trend in the national and international business communities.
"As the remote working trend expands, so will the availability for a segment of our workforce to relocate to their 'community of choice,'" the study states. "This in turn will contribute to a resettlement pattern that will affect many communities."
Rice and Waller point out that location-neutral business will be part of a $150,000 study that's under way in Blaine County. Called Sustain Blaine, it will focus on various components of the Blaine County economy, including location-neutral entrepreneurs.
"We don't have a really good grip on it," Waller said. "It's one of the things that the analysis will take a look at."
Waller called location-neutral employees "lone eagles." Along with people who live in Blaine County and commute to jobs in more urban environments, they undoubtedly make up a significant portion of the economy.
"There are several different segments, and I think as a community we need a better handle on what kinds of them there are and what the economic impact is. It's an important factor of economic diversity for a community like ours."
Waller said the explanation for their existence in relatively high numbers in places like Routt or Blaine counties boils down to quality of life.
"These are folks who have made that choice to either commute or work remotely," she said. "If you ask them, it's all about quality of life. It's all about this, for the lack of a better term, small-town big life, the resort area amenities, which we have because we are a resort area."
Rice said it's interesting that the resort-oriented quality of life attracts such employees because the area's economy needs to move beyond reliance on tourism. The resort lifestyle is an important component, but should not be relied upon.
"In my mind, if we catered more and tried to attract more non-tourism businesses, then we wouldn't be so dependant on the tourism industry," she said. "Many of these types of businesses bring dollars from outside the valley, and there's a lot less volatility. I'm calling for a more diverse economy."
The Castle Rock Fire of last August and September was a good example. When the fire and smoke descended on the Wood River Valley, the tourists and second-home owners fled.
"If we had an ongoing community of people who are living here, then business would continue to proceed on a more normal flow," Rice said. "What some people think about is: What's going to be our future if we're an isolated community? And with rising fuel prices it's going to be more expensive to get here. Running the guns for artificial snow is getting more expensive. Global warming is changing ski areas across the country.
"Again, if we rely on one industry we are going to hurt ourselves."
And that gets back to one of Weaver's fundamental assertions.
"We don't promote this town," he said. "The people in the government seem to want to keep Ketchum right where it was 20 to 25 years ago. Unfortunately, resort-based jobs can't sustain that model. The city should be interested in attracting higher-paying jobs that can be in remote locations, such as ours or financial services."
Cancer Consultants licenses Web site content to 140 cancer centers throughout the United States. It's a business model Weaver said is working.
"We were doing it 10 years ago. We were among the first," he said. "We said, 'That's our niche.' We developed this private-label product and reach about 1.5 million seekers of cancer information each month, and most of them probably don't even know it's coming from us."
The Sustain Blaine study is being funded by a combination of private- and public-sector funding and is coordinated by a consortium of local private and public entities—"everybody who's invested in seeing how we can improve and enhance the economy here," Waller said.
The study will examine what makes up the valley's economy now and what steps can be taken to improve and diversify that economy.
"You can't really map out a wellness plan unless you've got a thorough diagnosis," Waller said. "So that's what we're going to do."
Online financial planner makes good in Ketchum
Uranga & Associates is a Ketchum-based financial consulting business that doesn't have to be in Ketchum.
Using its trademarked "Outside" method, the business uses the Internet to help people invest IRA money in real estate—and live in the places where those funds have been invested.
"It's a way of structuring so that you're using all IRA and IRS tax laws. It's looking at it outside the box," said Claire Fenton, the company's general manager. "We've packaged it, and we've offered it to the general public, and we've offered it to the general people, not just the super wealthy."
Fenton said such a concept is timely for many because there are trillions of dollars in IRA funds nationwide. Using the traditional "inside" method, people using IRA money to invest in real estate could not also occupy their investment.
"All of our business is through the Web site," Fenton said. "Theoretically, I could pick up a laptop and work from Mexico."
At the time of the interview, in fact, the company's owner, Alberto Flores-Uranga, was working from Spain.
Fenton said there are a number of businesses nationwide that do what Uranga & Associates does, though she pointed out that Uranga was the first. And there's plenty of business to go around.
"We don't feel any threat because there's a huge market out there, absolutely huge," she said. "Enough for all of us."
For more information on Uranga or other financial planners offering help with IRA investments, visit:
· www.urangafinancial.com.
· www.herakfinancial.com.
· www.pottsfinancial.com.
· www.chicagoirarealestate.com.
Charles Weaver is founder and CEO of Cancer Consultants, a Ketchum-based business that could easily be based anywhere in the country. Location-neutral businesses like Weaver’s will be studied as part of a countywide business survey this summer and fall.
Photo by Willy Cook
